Plant and Animal Habitat

Benefits

Valparaiso pathways and greenway corridors can serve as viable habitat for many species of plants and wildlife. Greenway corridors provide essential food sources and, most importantly, access to water that is required by all wildlife.

Greenways in the Valparaiso area could become primary migratory routes for terrestrial wildlife, serving to help maintain the integrity of many plant and animal gene pools. Some wildlife biologists have extolled greenways as future gene-ways because these migration routes are essential to maintaining healthy wildlife populations.

Plant Conservation

Greenways can also serve as gene-ways for plant species that migrate with changes in climate and habitat. These greenways often follow river and stream corridors that have long served as transportation routes for animals and humans. Valparaiso pathways and greenways promote local programs to protect valuable existing forested and wetland areas and to reclaim and restore streams to support higher quality habitat.